(this chapter contains multiple pov's and for the sake of the writing, I'm not gonna say which is who's pov but if you can't figure it out, it'll be in the comments, either on the first paragraph or on the line)
⊱⊱ ──── {◆✧◦◦ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ◦◦✧◆} ──── ⊰⊰
"Read the article," Tommy demanded, clicking on the headline.
Ranboo reluctantly stared at the screen, before sighing, and reading.
"King Philza of The Antarctic Empire announced that the unnamed heir to the throne has recently passed away."
Tubbo cut Ranboo off immediately. "Are you telling me no one out there knows your name? We are some of the few people that know your name?"
Tommy nodded, urging Ranboo to continue.
"According to his announcement, four castle guards were patrolling a nearby forest when they came across the barren crown."
Ranboo paused with a troubled look on his face. "Well, that can't be good."
"Just continue" Tubbo replied eagerly.
"Ranboo sighed and nodded.
"According to one of the knights, who chooses to remain anonymous, there was no dead body, nor any trace of blood near the crown."
"Of course there wasn't blood, I'm not actually dead," Tommy mumbled to himself.
"So the majority of the citizens wonder: Is the prince really dead?"
Tubbo snickered at the fact that Tommy had just answered that.
"However, another Knight of the patrol recently stepped up to say that there was a body found near the throne and that there was proof he had passed away, shutting down the majority of the arguments from the citizens, rather leaving them confused."
Tommy glared at the screen. "You know who I bet it is, it's Techno. He was probably saving his dad's ass."
"With the sudden death of the now dead prince, with no heir to the throne, Prince Wilbur of the Antarctic Empire is willing to step up for the job, saying he would be discarding his music career for the country."
Tubbo sent Tommy a small frown. "So that's why he's giving up his music career."
"So it's my fault?"Tommy asked unsurely and was instantly met with a firm No.
"Definitely not your fault," Tubbo assured him, though to be fair it was his fault.
"The king also announced that no funeral would be held, his exact words were: It is not necessary."
Tommy giggled, much to the two's surprise.
"It is such a Phil thing to do, these people would probably think it's cuz I'm alive but it's really just because Phil doesn't care about me."
"Uh-huh," Ranboo nodded, concern evident on his face. He continued reading anyways.
"So if you really think about it, is the prince really dead?"
"AHA! I CALLED IT," Tommy shouted victoriously, getting two worried looks from the rest of the room.
"Tommy? Are you okay?" Ranboo asked slowly.
Ranboo and Tubbo sat in silence waiting for Tommy's reaction.
What they didn't expect was for Tommy to just shrug it off.
"Tommy...?" Tubbo asked unsurely, and Tommy just smiled.
"It's okay Tubbo, I wouldn't have expected anything less of the high and mighty King Philza Minecraft Watson. I'm more worried about Wilbur."
Ranboo looked at Tommy funny. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Tip of the top Ranboo. Couldn't be better!"
Tubbo leaned towards Ranboo and brought his hand to Ranboo's ear.
"I think he's in denial."
◆✧◦ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ◦✧◆
After trying and failing at convincing the two he was most certainly NOT in denial, (though to be fair he probably was), he gave up and decided to go bother Dream.
He wanted to hear the song, the last song of Wilbur's career that he ended by being selfish.
But how would he listen to the song?
Tommy was so used to hearing his brother's music through the castle walls, because their rooms were right next to each other.
Now, he'd have to listen to the song like everyone else.
Gross.
"Dream, I need your phone," Tommy demanded, holding his hand out.
Dream raised an eyebrow at Tommy. "Do you even know how to work one?"
Tommy scoffed, grabbing the phone from Dream's hand. "Of course I do."
He clicked on the phone, his eyebrows furrowing at a number code. "What the..."
He could literally hear Dream's smirk without even looking up at Dream. "Tommy the password is 436743."
Tommy nodded, looking at the keypad. Slowly but surely, he looked through the numbers and found 4.
Then he rescanned the numbers and found 3.
Then he rescanned the numbers and found 6.
Then he rescanned the numbers and fou-
"Give me the phone" Dream sighed, snatching the phone and putting in the password in mere seconds.
Dream handed the phone back to Tommy, and Tommy gaped.
There were boxes. So many little boxes.
Tommy sheepishly looked up at Dream, who had a knowing look on his face.
"Just tell me what you need me to do," Dream smiled, taking his phone back.
"I wanna listen to Wilbur's new song," Tommy grinned, and he watched as Dream clicked one of the small boxes, and opened another small box.
After a couple of seconds, Dream held a link in front of Tommy's face.
"Is this it?"
Tommy excitedly nodded, grabbing the phone again.
He clicked the link, yes he was smart enough to do at least that, and all of a sudden, the little phone in his hand started playing music.
Albeit quietly, but it was definitely playing music.
"Click the side button" Dream whispered, but when Tommy clicked it, the sound ended up stopping.
"Why is the phone black?"
Dream put his head in his hands. "You- you turned it- I meant- not the- I meant the volume button, Tommy."
"The what?"
"Just- give it to me please." Dream strained a smile, grabbing the phone. He turned it on, put the password, clicked on the link, and increased the volume.
"Here you go," Dream handed the phone back to Tommy, who smiled when a familiar voice played.
He listened to the song, choosing to just focus on Wilbur's voice.
He missed it.
He hummed along to the song, before realizing something.
The audio track, the background music.
It sounded familiar.
Way too familiar.
Tommy's grip on the phone tightened, as he used the little scroll bar at the bottom of the song to rewind it.
He held the phone up to his ear, trying to focus on the music.
His eyes widened, and his grip on the phone loosened. Dream caught it before it hit the ground, quickly pocketing it and crouching down to Tommy's level.
"Hey buddy, hey look at me" Dream coaxed, trying to focus Tommy's attention on him, but all Tommy could hear was the music, playing on repeat in his head.
He was shaking, he was physically shaking.
"Toms" Dream tried, grabbing Tommy's hand.
Tommy's head snapped towards Dream, a look of betrayal plastered on his face.
Tommy could feel his fists tighten, and his shock was quickly replaced with some strange mix of anger and sadness.
"He stole it," Tommy tried, feeling tears pool in his eyes.
"He stole what?" Dream said softly, rubbing the back of Tommy's hands.
"He stole the song."
◆✧◦ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ◦✧◆
Wilbur knew that what he was doing was wrong.
He knew that very well.
But you could call it anger, rage, it makes you do stupid stupid things that you always end up regretting.
Yet it hadn't occurred to Wilbur he'd end up regretting it at the time.
He was pissed.
He was so pissed when his dad called him to the throne room, with a sorry look on his face.
He placed a hand on Wilbur's and offered him a sad smile.
"Wilbur, I know how much you love music..." Phil trailed off, but Wilbur already knew where this was going.
Techno and a couple of other guards were scouting the forest the other day when they found a very familiar crown.
They immediately came back to the castle to show Phil. He took one look at the crown and didn't even bother hearing their story.
He took one look at the crown and declared Wilbur's baby brother, dead.
But if that sting wasn't enough, he was now standing in front of Phil, having the conversation he had tried to avoid ever since he was a child.
"Since Timmy's dea-"
"Tommy. It's Tommy."
Phil looked at Wilbur disapprovingly but continued anyway. "Since Tommy's dead, there's no one to take over the throne."
Wilbur hated every part of this.
"What about Techno? Why me?"
Phil looked at Wilbur with a pointed but hesitant, and an unspoken sentence was said.
Wilbur already knew that Techno was the favorite anyways.
"So that's it? I have to give up my entire music career to become your coveted king?"
Phil tried to assure him. "No no, you can still sing and produce music, but no longer as often as you used to, and definitely not as your career."
Wilbur swallowed down his anger, and nodded.
The nod was all Phil needed to plaster on a huge smile. "I'm sure you will be an excellent King, Wilbur. We must start your training though, you are quite behind."
Wilbur nodded again, too afraid that if he were to open his mouth, he'd say something he'd regret.
When his dad dismissed him, he stormed into his room and it took everything in him not to slam the door shut.
Instead, he slowly closed it, and took a deep breath.
He knew he couldn't blame Techno, Techno was his big brother, and his best friend.
He knew he couldn't blame Phil, Phil raised him, gave him everything.
So call him an idiot, but he decided the only logical option to direct his anger towards was his little brother.
He tried to reassure himself, I mean, it was Tommy who decided to run off anyways. He shouldn't have done that.
And if he's dead, getting revenge on a dead person is just like getting revenge on nothing right?
Right?
Though deep down, something told Wilbur Tommy wasn't dead.
He pushed the thoughts to the side.
He was mad.
He was thinking irrationally.
He shouldn't do this.
He pushed those thoughts to the side as well.
Before he could convince himself otherwise, he left his room and eventually found himself in Tommy's.
He knew what he was here for.
He just didn't know where it was.
After searching through Tommy's closet, and drawers, which were not surprisingly neat and kept in order, he made his way to Tommy's desk.
And his eyes narrowed in on one thing on the desk.
Tommy's record player, and discs.
Wilbur looked over the stacks of discs with a soft smile.
They weren't discs you could find at stores, or such, because they were never published.
They were Tommy's discs.
When Tommy was six or seven, Wilbur used to find his guitar missing more than usual.
But when he went to sleep and woke up the next morning, it was always back in its spot, seemingly untouched.
He couldn't understand what was happening, until one night he heard music coming from his brother's room.
Just music.
No words, no lyrics, no drums, no other instruments.
Just Wilbur's guitar.
He ended up teaching Tommy how to record and burn his music into discs, and before Wilbur knew it, piles and piles of discs, Tommy's discs, grew in his room.
"And if Tommy was gonna take away my music career from me," Wilbur muttered under his breath, grabbing the record player and whatever disc was inside it at the moment, "Then I'll just steal his music."
Wilbur let his anger fuel him, mismatching whatever lyrics he had prewritten and produced a song, his last one.
And before he could think twice, he released the song.
◆✧◦ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ◦✧◆
When Dream watched Tommy cry, he sat there with a loss for words.
He didn't know what to do, and god was he confused as hell.
Stole?
Music?
Okay maybe not confused, it really wasn't that hard to put together what happened, but just a little...
Contextless.
"Tommy, what do you mean he stole your song?"
Tommy looked at Dream, before letting out another sob and wiping aggressively at his eyes.
Dream immediately pulled his hands away, not wanting the boy to hurt himself, and then wrapped the boy in the hug.
He did not expect Tommy to immediately cling to him and bury his face in Dream's chest, but oh well.
Dream awkwardly patted him on the back.
This was reassuring.
Right?
"My mother..." Tommy choked out through tears, and Dream nodded like it explained everything.
He was still very very confused.
"Ah yes. The dead one right?"
Is what Dream would have said if he was an idiot.
"Is this your mother's song?" he asked instead.
Maybe it wasn't the right thing to say but it definitely wouldn't kill him.
Tommy shook his head into Dream's chest, and Dream nodded again like it explained everything.
He was still quite confused.
"So, uh, is this like, a song about your mother?" Dream tried again, gaining a nod from Tommy.
AHA.
This was going SOMEWHERE.
He wasn't sure where yet, but he'd get there eventually.
Probably.
Hopefully.
"So you made this song, it was about your mother, and Wilbur stole it?" Dream asked, piecing together everything he learned like a super cool detective.
Tommy nodded, but then as if it was an afterthought, he added "Phil..."
Wow, another person?
They just keep coming.
"Does, Phil like this song? Something? Maybe? Like that?" Dream tried and gained another nod.
He felt like he was getting a really half-assed story right now.
Dream shook his head, and decided he could be a detective later.
"Well, Toms I'm so sorry he did that," Dream whispered.
He decided he would pry the full story out of Tommy later, what was important right now is making Tommy calm down.
So the two sat there until Tommy's cries leveled out, and if Tommy had ended up threatening Dream to keep the whole crying part a secret, no one would know.
◆✧◦ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ◦✧◆
So maybe that's when Wilbur realized how dumb he was.
After he had already published his song to the entire world.
After it ended up being one of his hits, even though it was put together overnight.
After Techno, of all people, came to confront him.
When Techno heard the song, he didn't even have to listen to it once, to immediately recognize the song.
He wasn't even supposed to know this specific song, but he did end up hearing it, by accident.
He knew how important that song was to Tommy.
After Techno's mother died giving birth to Tommy, Techno could tell Phil had internally blamed Tommy and it didn't take long for him to outwardly blame him as well.
So that day, the 7th anniversary of his mother's death, Tommy showed Phil a song he made with Wilbur's guitar, and Techno remembered that day so well.
He remembered how Phil had said "I love you" to Tommy for the first, and the last time ever.
Techno knows, how much those three words meant to Tommy.
It was obvious, the hierarchy in the family and it was obvious Phil never planned on showing Tommy any form of attention ever again.
So he knew how much Tommy cherished those three words, and how much Tommy cherished the song in general.
Ever since that night, Techno could hear Tommy listening to the disc whenever he was sad, and on every single anniversary of his mother's death.
(Technically also Tommy's birthday but Techno doesn't even remember one time they celebrated it.)
So when Techno heard the disc in the background of Wilbur's song, even though he wasn't close at all to Tommy, he knew Wilbur crossed a line.
So he stormed into Wilbur's bedroom right as he was about to sleep, and calmly explained to Wilbur what a terrible person he was.
Calmly.
Of course.
As Techno left the bedroom of a horrified and remorseful Wilbur, he slightly regretted not telling Wilbur in the morning instead of at night, knowing Wilbur would absolutely beat himself up over it.
He was always closer to Tommy, or at least he was back when Tommy was much younger.
Techno bit his tongue when he realized he couldn't even remember how old Tommy is.
Was.
Tommy was.
Because Tommy was dead.
Maybe Techno wouldn't be able to sleep tonight either.
◆✧◦ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ◦✧◆
Tommy sat up on Dream's bed, peering down at Dream who had offered to sleep on the floor today out of pity.
He glared at the slightly open closet door, his eyes catching on his royal uniform.
Slowly creeping out of bed, he made sure Dream was asleep, before walking towards the small safe Dream had and putting in the code he'd seen Dream put in before.
When the safe clicked open, he grabbed one of the gloves, pressing the button to turn on the laser.
He crept back over to the closet and grabbed his uniform.
He thought over it once.
Phil didn't even care he was dead.
He thought over it twice.
Wilbur stole one of the songs that meant so much to him.
He thought over it thrice.
None of his brothers bothered to talk to him for such a long time.
He thought over it four times.
Living in the castle was like living in a prison.
He thought over it five times.
He ran the laser straight through the middle of the uniform, watching with a small smile as it fell to the floor in two burnt parts.
And he looked back at Dream and smiled, because for once he actually felt like he was free.
⊱⊱ ──── {◆✧◦◦ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ◦◦✧◆} ──── ⊰⊰
According to Wattpad statistics, only a small percentage of people who read my book vote on the story. So if u end up enjoying this story, consider voting, it's free and u can always unvote later.
Sometimes, Wattpad glitches out, so if you could just check, it would be Epic #VotePrime